Jonathan Alter gets an earful over his article attacking Diane Ravitch. Good for teachers!

[madfloridian]

We are getting tired of these mindless attacks. Alter's article is one of the worst ever because he actually quotes Arne Duncan saying insulting things about a scholar, education professor, and former assistant Secretary of Education.

It is unbelievable that Jonathan Alter used space in Bloomberg's media to attack a woman who has opposed not only Arne Duncan's policies...but those of Bloomberg as well. I find it actually scary that the "reformers" are so brazen now as to use the media to attack individuals in the name of this administration.

Apologist Alter gets an earful.


Picture courtesy of Fred Klonsky's blog

If you read the scummy hack writing job Jonathan Alter tries to pass as journalism and you read it early, you may have missed the pleasure of the reading the comment section.

Alter’s piece is full of nasty, unsupported slanders of Diane Ravitch like, “While healthy skepticism is a virtue, Ravitch seems bent on extinguishing any hope that our teachers and schools can do better.”

Huh? If anyone gives hope to teachers that things can be better, it is Diane Ravitch.

But reading the comment section also gives hope. Taken together, the responses provide a scathing critique of the reformy nonsense of Alter, his patron Michael Bloomberg, Arne Duncan and the like.

Here are some comments that are listed.

The deregulation of our public school system by people who have no vested interest in it beyond their own pockets is the demise of democracy. It is no surprise that so many men all of the sudden have so much interest in the children! Money. Always follow the money. – Save Public Schools

The current “reform” movement seeks to preserve and even expand this status quo that has been so detrimental to so many of our citizens and harmful to the country at large. Charter schools are popping up all over the country to further segregate not only the poor but also the disababled. – linda retired teacher

Ho-Humm. The pro-corporate reform rhetoric gets heavier and meaner as the pressure to inform the public about the hoax that it really is gets more and more attention. More frustrating for the educrats is that they can’t fight back with knowledge, experience, expertise, or fact because they just don’t have it. – Lee Barrios

Secretary Duncan qualified for his post by playing basketball in Australia and by serving as an education politician in the Chicago system. His “Race to the Top” program, slipped into bailout legislation, forces states to hold teachers responsible for learning if states wish to receive federal cash. Therefore, this program would be better called “Dash for Cash.” – John C. Corr

Does anyone else find it amusing that a man who argues that teachers do not get better with years of experience includes a brief biography next to his byline that brags of his years of experience? – Heather

Here is a link to Alter's rather pathetic apologist article for the "reformers." It's pretty bad.

Don’t Believe Critics, Education Reform Works

Here is a typical nasty paragraph by Alter.

The leader of this rear-guard action is Diane Ravitch, a professor at New York University who was an assistant secretary of education in the administration of George H.W. Bush. She’s the education world’s very own Whittaker Chambers, the famous communist turned strident anti-communist of the 1940s. Ravitch moved the other way, from right to left, where she now uses phony empiricism to rationalize almost every tired argument offered by teachers unions.

The worst is when he proudly quotes Arne Duncan. This is a shameful thing for Arne to say.

Arne Duncan, President Barack Obama’s normally mild- mannered education secretary, has finally had enough. “Diane Ravitch is in denial and she is insulting all of the hardworking teachers, principals and students all across the country who are proving her wrong every day,” he said when I asked about Ravitch this week.

Here are a few more comments there from after the article at Bloomberg. They are very angry and rightfully so.

Gene Fisher, Part-time Teacher, Arlington County, VA Adj. Prof. George Washington University Former Congressional Staff Union Organizer and Representative Political Consultant Policy Analyst 6 hours ago

You compare Dr. Diane Ravitch with Whittaker Chambers. The comparison is as extreme as it is unfortunate and inaccurate. By making that association, are you then to be likened to John O’Neill or Steve Gardiner of “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” fame? Your reproach of Dr. Ravitch’s critique of so-called “education reformers,” has the ring of “swiftboating.”

Here is another:

morecoffee 7 hours ago
This was written by a crazy person who really knows nothing about education (as opposed to his esteemed, knowledgeable and experienced target, Diane Ravitch). This whole line of argument makes parents in the public school system FURIOUS. There are so, SO many points to refute! Bottom line, though, is that charter schools, attempts to end LIFO without an alternate plan and wrong-headed education 'reform' are dragging us down and setting us all back.

And another:

Lee Barrios 1 day ago
Ho-Humm. The pro-corporate reform rhetoric gets heavier and meaner as the pressure to inform the public about the hoax that it really is gets more and more attention. More frustrating for the educrats is that they can't fight back with knowledge, experience, expertise, or fact because they just don't have it.

I printed out Mr. Alter's commentary and pinned it by my computer. I'm going to splatter red ink on it and use it as a reminder as I campaign for the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education that it will be a difficult ride and many lies will be told in the process. There is so much to be lost. On their side: money, power, political ambition. . . . . On the side of public education and the children it serves: the future and welfare of our children (our most precious possessions) and the future and welfare of America. For love or money?

Mr. Alter, you accuse Dr. Ravitch of not having solutions to the problems she so clearly identifies in this Race to the Top of the Stock Market. You wouldn't understand them even if you did agree to sit down with her and listen. Teaching is not a script and learning is not a bubble sheet.

I am quite sure that Jonathan Alter is quite proud of himself in spite of the angry responses to his article.

Jonathan Alter had made a habit of writing ugly things about teachers and writing puff pieces about Arne Duncan. Here is one of the articles praising Arne for his basketball prowess...just like that mattered in education.

Jonathan Alter does puff piece on Arne Duncan.


Matthias Clamer for Newsweek

"On Duncan’s left, teachers’ unions (especially the National Education Association) try to impede common-sense reform ideas like tenure reform and merit pay. But the liberal chorus that slimes many reasonable reformers as “anti-teacher” can’t do that with Duncan. His lavish praise of teachers (“unsung heroes”) and support for new-teacher training give him cover to push essential reform that the unions don’t like."

...Jonathan Alter starts his article with reference to Arne Duncan's wonderful basketball skills...just like it has something to do with education which it does not. He says Obama wanted Duncan on his team "partly because Duncan is tall (6 foot 5), a former pro player in Australia, and such a good passer that Michael Jordan asked Duncan to help him train for his legendary comeback in 1995."

Duncan’s passion is evident every day. “I’m in two, three, four schools a week. I totally need it,” he says. “It gives you energy and lets you know why you’re fighting.” He shoots hoops often with students and brings each school a signed ball.

And the article ends as it begins...with references to Arne's basketball skills.

I am beginning to think that education "reformers" are smug enough to think they have done something very right when they make educators, real ones, angry.

There will be somehow a payment due for the contempt in which public school teachers have been held the last couple of years. I am not sure of the form it will take. Teachers are passive creatures, trained to be that way by the threat of being marked down on respecting authority on their evaluation.

But they are human as well, and the constant attacks are taking a toll.

[Larkspur]

1. I've never liked Alter much

He's one of those liberal types that support the elite so he can get more book deals from them.

[madfloridian]

2. Seems like he has gotten worse than he used to be.

Like all pretense is gone now.

[Odin2005]

15. He's the typical Neo-Liberal hack that pretends to be a Progressive.

[madfloridian]

3. An urban educator has some words for Alter.

http://www.anurbanteacherseducation.com/2011/06/dear-jo...

"First and foremost, please, for the love of God, stop referring to people who disagree with corporate reform as "the forces of the status quo." Any time someone uses that phrase, I am immediately disinclined to give them any more of my time. It is both obnoxious and beyond exhausted. More importantly, there are many legitimate concerns with the corporate reform model. To suggest that anyone who resists it is against education reform (as you suggested of Dr Ravitch and me in our last email conversation) only demonstrates that while you may hear our side, you're not really listening. The corporate reform movement has spent a lot of money purchasing the terms of the educational debate. As a result, opponents of corporate reform find themselves on the defensive more often than not. While I believe a better job must be done advancing our preferred reforms, it is incredibly difficult to do so under constant attack. Please, pay closer attention.

Secondly, I wonder if it might be possible (although I am sincerely skeptical) to extricate ourselves from what I consider an entirely false conversation about school quality with a reliance on quantitative data as its basis, primarily test scores."

[bonnieS]

4. thanks for this

I especially like Heather's comment.

[madfloridian]

5. Me, too.

Bill Gates said it and the reformer articles parrot it.

[ooglymoogly]

6. Alter is a beltway gasbag;

wearing the 7 veils of a bluedog.

Is it surprising to anyone, he supports fellow bluedogs?

[ooglymoogly]

7. KR...nt

[Capt Lionel Mandrake]

8. Fewer Will Go Into Teaching

Being abused and disrespected on the radio, television, and by the so-called elite politicians (et cetera), very intelligent persons won't want to go into teaching. Teaching is a difficult, demanding, and not well-remunerated profession, however fulfilling it can be. Unfortunately, teaching becomes less fulfilling the less social cachet it has, and in the U.S. it has nearly none. Good luck, Americans! Learn by technology! (Soon you'll be making love to robots as well! Long live the Stepford Wives!)

[madfloridian]

10. Good post. I agree.

There is really no reason at all now to plan a career in teaching. They are deprofessionalizing it, turning it all into temp jobs.

[sulphurdunn]

9. Alter is Arne's Peggy Noonan:

GW Bush's former Beltway pom-pom cheerleader and breathless swoon swan.

[madfloridian]

11. Heh heh.

That's funny. Noonan loved George Bush, defended him forever. I know of 3 articles now that Alter has written praising Duncan...it's overkill.

[theaocp]

12. It's like the burning of Alexandria

... we'll never know where we could've been, if what happened ... hadn't. The question is only WHEN their shaky house of cards will come crashing down and HOW MUCH damage they will do before it does.

[madfloridian]

13. It is a shaky house of cards.

And it will collapse. You are right. My fear is that there won't be enough of public education the traditional kind, to rebuild.

It is worrying me a lot.

[chervilant]

14. Excellent post, madfloridian

Our children don't deserve Arne Duncan or RTTT. Our nation can ill afford to allow this egregious assault on public education.

[madfloridian]

16. You are so right.

Our children do not deserve this.

[Doctor_J]

17. We have to take the good with the bad, folks

Alter was a solid supporter of Obama during the primaries and the GE campaign, and he still is, and probably will be next year. I don't like some things in the prez's agenda, education deform being one of them, but Alter's world view is more like Obama's than mine, and so be it.

[madfloridian]

18. The harm to public education is so serious....I can't take it lightly.

[madfloridian]

19. I did not know that Alter's wife was a producer of Colbert's show.

Interesting.

"12/2/2010
Students in Newark Academy’s politics of change class had the opportunity to view the thought-provoking documentary film, "Waiting for Superman." Renowned journalist and current parent Jonathan Alter is one of the educational experts featured in this film.

Alter himself attended Phillips Andover. His wife is a producer for Stephen Colbert. which is no doubt one reason Colbert has repeatedly had Rhee, Guggenheim, & Canada on his show."

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2011/06/alters-solution-t...

[AuntPatsy]

20. Thank you for all your work in exposing these true criminals

[madfloridian]

22. I am talking to more and more teachers in our area, still teaching.

I don't see many of them much since I retired. They are really upset and angry.

I know these attacks on public education have left me stunned and sad. I don't think many realize the way the anger is building among teachers and others in the schools.

[Starry Messenger]

21. k&r

[BrklynLiberal]

23. Another great post Madfloridian!!! Thank you.

[traceydouglas]

24. Whack-a-Teacher Derailed

Dear Mad: before you're head 'splodes, I offer you a bunch 'o laughs.
www.traceydouglas.blogspot.com . Laughs guaranteed!